Big Brother, Little Brother
by spliced teacup
Summary: BioShock AU. Hope calls his Big Daddy 'Alexander,' Lightning calls him 'Snow.'
1. Chapter 1

_Bioshock AU. Slight Snow/Hope._

The boy skips along the ruined halls of the sunken city, while the larger half man, half machine watches in a solemn fascination. He plods along, making a heavy thump every step he takes. His younger partner makes a game out of it, jumping whenever he hears the sound.

Through it all Lightning watches them, she knows of the dynamics between Little Sisters and the Big Daddies (the strong protecting the weaker, more vulnerable species) but these two are peculiar, even for their roles. She is almost certain the white haired Little Sister is male. His chest is flat, she couldn't see his Adam's apple, it is covered by a baby blue bandanna. His Big Daddy looks just as bizarre as he does, squinting she could see flecks of light, blond hair in the mouth of the helmet, his diver suit wrapped up in a large grey trench coat.

Hope(what she's been told his name is at least) calls his Big Daddy 'Alexander,' despite his name before turning into what he is now being Snow. Snow Villiers to be exact, Lightning remembered him when he briefly dated her sister. He had disappeared years back and left Serah broken-hearted. Sure, one could argue he isn't what she thinks he is but there are too many distinguishing traits to him or maybe some part of her had a deranged obsession of wanting to know what had happened to the man who had disappointed Serah all those years ago and projected it onto these two without any thought.

They wander down a corridor, bare on light and immediately Lightning's senses go off. She can't make out much from her hiding spot, but sees something piled up on the pathway.

It doesn't take long for Hope to notice it either. He stops abruptly and kneels down close to the crumpled thing. He pulls out a large needle from his pockets and sticks it into the body with the finesse of a doctor who'd done it a million times over. Lightning sees the shadow before Snow does and she reaches for her gunblade before realizing what she is doing. She pauses in between pulling her weapon all the way out or putting it back.

The attacker grabs at Hope, who squeaks in surprise. A trap. But a poorly planned one at that as the man attempts to flee with Hope in his arms. Snow is upon them in a brief second. He pulls them apart, they both collapse into separate piles by the force exerted on them. Snow descends on him.

Lightning watches as Snow wordlessly jams the drill into the man's chest, hard enough for it to pass through to the other side. He tosses him aside when he stops screaming. Hope examines the corpse, pulling out the blue flower from the man's lapel. Snow crouches down to Hope's height, he pins the flower on Snow's tattered trench coat and smiles giddily, a strange morbid portrait of death, blood from his attacker had splattered all over him but he seems unphased by this.

His protector makes a low, mournful sound which Lightning could only describe as a laugh.

* * *

I apologize for any canon divergence(for the Bioshock series) I'm not well-versed on it seeing as I only watched my brother play fifteen minutes of the opening, the rest was taken from the wikia.

I might try a Bioshock Infinite AU, it'll probably go smoother, I watched my bro play through the whole thing :p


	2. Chapter 2

_There's a glossary at the end for those having trouble with the terminology._

**Chapter 2  
**

She wakes up to find herself completely alone. The couch Snow and Hope (sleeping on his monstrous lap) had settled in is empty.

But that is fine for Lightning, it just gives her more time to think before she confronts him.

Odin is gone, the faint humming of the device against her ear is the only remnant of their relationship. Breakfast consists of cheap brandy found on the stairway and a stale pack of potato chips. Since crash-landing, she lived like a vagrant, grabbing whatever she could find and swallowing it down like it was the last piece of food or water she'd be able to find in a while and maybe it was. That boy, Hope, Odin had called him (and abruptly cut off after that) looks like a middle-schooler, freshman in high school tops and spoiled. The fact that Snow had kept him alive is impressive.

She plays through the tapes she had collected, sitting in a corner with her back pressed up against a wall.

"-Big Daddy: Alexander prototype. Subject: Snow Villiers-"

Cycles and cycles of monotonous scientific jargon, nothing remotely useful. Pushing herself up, she feels light-headed. The manadrives had given her strange buzz from the moment she started using them, it's a little like being addicted. Odin had reassured her that it wasn't as bad as the pure unfiltered FOCUS the Cie'ths had taken to. She didn't need to tell Lightning that, she had seen it time after time with her own eyes. Some weren't too severe, having an arm or two crystallized, others had their entire bodies covered in thick, bluish scales with a red glowing eye in the center of their faces.

Cocoon itself seems like a genetic playground, decadent during its brighter days and a living nightmare once corruption took root. She tries to imagine the people who had thought to call this place their home, how they had tried to seek refuge in isolation.

The ocean floor is mesmerizing, Lightning admits. Brightly lit lights on the outside of the city, glass tubes connecting everything together. Every time she passes by, she can't help but stare. Beautiful and strangely nostalgic, something at the back of her mind clicks.

There isn't a way to distinguish night or day from here, though. A sick thought occurs to her, she doesn't know when she'll end up seeing both Hope and Snow again or even if they'll still be alive when she reaches them. She had been merciful, others might not be.

Lightning's fears are somewhat soothed when she meets up with them after a long haul of Cie'ths crowding what was probably a small plaza. This time, though it's Hope that does the approaching. Flicking her mirror that Serah had given her before climbing aboard the plane that killed all its passengers save for her.

He watches in wide-eyed fascination as Lightning plays with her hand mirror. It startles her, to see Hope get so close, Snow doesn't seem too bothered by it either. Mistakenly assuming it safe, she reaches out to the boy, who recoils back as if she had hit him. Snow groans angrily, eyes flashing red. She puts down her hand, resting it on her lap and watches his eyes trail the mirror.

His hand outstretched towards the thing, plucks it out of hers without any effort. At this point, she's too drained, too defeated and too lonely to stop Hope. Hesitantly, he pulls something out of his own pocket and gives it to her in exchange for the mirror. A strange vile of red, glowing liquid.

Lightning snatches it up as soon as she sees it.

It becomes a ritual of sorts to the parties involved. Hope trades her vials full of FOCUS for the little trinkets she picks up from the corpses and abandoned housing complexes. A happy compromise, she thinks, is probably letting Hope decide to approach instead of the other way around. Whenever they finish, he always goes to his Big Daddy (who watches pensively in the distance) and shows him the spoils.

Despite his height, Snow has never been a violent person. This was of course, before he became a Big Daddy. With the change, however he had become more temperamental and could no longer communicate but rather, made strange moaning noises. Even Snow has his limits on what is comfortable and too close, flashing from a sentient white to red. She doesn't dare test it though, let the Cie'ths of Cocoon perish in the experiment.

She could hack into him. She had done that to the other Big Daddies she had met up with. After they were hacked, they fixated on her, lavishing her with attention. A green colour glowing in their helmets, they obey without question.

"I know," Odin's voice flickers on the comm device (and not even skipping a beat on her absence), "what you are doing Lightning. It's not a good idea."

"I don't want to hear that from you," she hisses.

"Lightning, you're only holding off on curing Hope because the Alexander will attack you. I don't know the history behind the both of you but at some point you will have to confront him. Best be ready for that time."

* * *

**Glossary**  
Taejin's Tower- Lighthouse  
Cocoon-Rapture  
Cie'th- Splicer  
FOCUS- ADAM  
Fal'Cie- Angels  
Manadrives- Plasmids  
Odin- Atlas


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Hullo stranger," Fang drawls from the other end of the ticket booth.

"Fang."

"Haven't seen you in a while. You've kept the little ones safe though, I suppose I should thank you for that."

She sticks her chin up defiantly at Lightning and slides her some ammunition for her shot gun and a few potions. Behind Fang, Lightning can see pictures composed of markers and crayon. Juice boxes and small packs of cookies littered the floor, a sure sign of very young children. Lightning hadn't had the chance to thank her for the manadrive that saved the Little Sisters from their eternal servitude, she supposed it isn't really necessary as Fang had insisted on it, instead of coldly murdering them for FOCUS. It seems so out of place for Fang to watch after children that aren't hers. Lightning's a lot like her, in her younger days she would never have cared about anyone's happiness, save for her sister's.

"Why are you so interested in the Little Sisters, anyway?"

"I can't have what happened to Vanille happen to them," Fang responds bluntly.

The look in her eyes tells Lightning bits of the story but she knows when it's best to let these things go, the subject is dropped. Lightning shifts her shotgun awkwardly.

"Do Little Sisters get sick?"

Fang looks quizzically at the question. "No, the FOCUS keeps them pretty healthy even if they got injured the bones heal right up. But if the bones heal improperly, it might be a problem."

That is it then: he had been injured but his bones had healed in no time at all. The problem lay in how it had set. The last time she had met up with them, Snow was carrying Hope. His massive structure allows him to do so without any ramifications. They had traded normally as if nothing had happened then Hope had left the same way he had come.

"Hope is having problems with his legs."

"I told you: you should've just taken him when you had the chance!"

"It's not easy," Lightning bites back. "I know him."

"No- Lightning Snow's an Alexander model. He's one of the first Big Daddies to come out of the Eidolon project, that may not mean much to you but it's different. Snow's mortally bound to Hope, wherever Hope goes Snow goes. Even if you wanted to take him back to the surface, you couldn't, not without Hope. If Hope has an injury as you say he does, he'll die from it and so will Snow. Even if Snow dies, though Hope will still be alive but he won't have anybody."

And she turns around so Lightning doesn't see the complete disgust in her face. What they had done to Vanille was an absolute abomination. Pure, plain and simple, Lightning understands that but she can't possibly comprehend what it's like. To see someone you love drag around a giant monster, call it "Daddy" and be attacked for what you are.

As if responding to the open hostility, the red haired little girl Lightning had rescued in the Gapra Medical Pavillion ducks her head into the ticket booth and slides something to her side. She picks it up and unfolds it, it's a picture of a smiley face complete with rainbows and hearts. It's nauseating but flattering at the same time.

"Fang, I'm going now."

"Lightning," Fang calls out, back turned. "About Odin, she's not who you think she is. Not even close."

* * *

She checks the turrets one more time. They are still hacked from the time she had left them, a thunder spell surges through her veins as Lightning takes note of the puddles near the machines. She jams another needle full of manadrive into her arms, just in case.

She'd spotted them somewhere around the area, Snow carrying Hope. His leg is still bent in a strange angle. She sucks in her breath, listening for Snow's massive footfalls. The shotgun is heavy in her hands, she would've preferred the gunblade she'd picked up on an untrained Cie'th but that had run out of ammunition and the blade barely did damage to the other Big Daddies she'd encountered along the way.

"Sorry, it's nothing personal," she murmurs (more to herself than Snow). "Hope needs medical attention."

Snow's heavy footsteps thunder down the street to the cafe. Hope tucked into him, Lightning takes in the sight. It'll be the last time she'll see him standing.

She fires the first warning shot, straightens herself up so Snow can see the face of his attacker. He doesn't flinch at Lightning's advance, dropping Hope a safe distance away.

He closes the gap faster than Lightning can react, and suddenly she remembers the poor Cie'th who had tried to trick Hope, drilled to death.

The turrets go off at the movement. Snow bats at them, like a bear assaulting a bee hive. She seizes the opportunity to hit him with electricity, he stumbles at the jolt. She assaults him with another round of thunder spells, then another and another until he collapses from either the force of it or the volts pulsing in his veins.

She aims the gun to his face and takes one last look at him. He makes a long moaning sound, as if asking for sympathy. Holding her breath she pulls the trigger, the recoil surprises her.

Hope is still curled up in the corner where Snow had left him. She presses her hand to his forehead.

"Lightning!" Fang screams on the comm device. "Don't heal him yet, I'm worried something will come out. Just get him to the vent and have him make his way here."

Stopping, she pulls the boy up from his spot. "Where is he?"

It's the first few words he's ever spoken to her. He flails in her arms. "What the fuck did you do?"

She grimaces at the phrase. He'd probably learned that from the Cie'ths who constantly assaulted him on a daily basis for their fix of FOCUS. She waits for him to calm down, it's fair. For the price of killing his protector, Lightning takes his verbal assault. When he stops, she tilts her head.

"Done?"

"Yeah, I guess. You're not gonna harvest me?" he asks, shakily.

"No, I'm here to rescue you."**  
**

* * *

They pass a lewd scrawl of writing on the wall quoting: "Pulse is Hell!"

With another response: "If it even fucking exists."

She feels him fidget in her arms, one slung underneath him for support. The vent is probably close by. She doesn't know if he remembers the way or even knows where he's going.

"Remember," she says.

"I know, make my way to Palumpolum Amusements. Close to the ticket booth to where Fang is," he responds, a little dejectedly.

She sees the vent in a worn down workstation, complete with upturned chairs and tables. He feels heavier, she isn't sure if she's up to the task of trying to get him into the hole, if only she'd kept a few of those hypnotism manadrives. She could've goaded Snow into carrying him and getting him here safely. But the deed was done, and she couldn't dwell on it. She never did when it came to these things: not when her parents had died, not when she'd graduated from highschool and definitely not when she signed up for the Guardian Corps. They were simply milestones to a better life for both her and Serah and nothing more.

She helps him into the vent, wordlessly and he gives her a parting glance of pure venom before he leaves her.

"You're welcome," she says, somewhat grateful Odin had been absent throughout the episode.

* * *

I'm sorry for the wait! I did this chapter over three times, here's the really, really rough draft (it's in bits and pieces):

Sometimes, Snow wakes up to find Hope missing. It doesn't take him long to find the boy, like a sixth sense he can track his movements no matter how far he's gone. This time, he spots his form under a table still covered in cloth. He pulls back the sheet and peers down at Hope who smiles.

"Aww, you found me Big Guy," he coos.

He takes Snow's outstretched hand and pulls himself up. "Let's go find more Fal'Cie!"

He runs off into the distance, leaving Snow to follow. They're close to the entrance of the arboretum.

The body sprawled out near the canopy is rotting. It's finger nails pale from death but Hope is undeterred by this, he sticks the needle into it.

**x-x-x**

Lightning gets her first glimpse of Snow without his helmet or Hope and it is an unpleasant sight. The place where he lies dead, his eyes fixated on an indiscernible point. A gun, a single gunshot wound to the head. He had lost weight since she had seen him last, his hair had grown unmanageable over the years. She reaches over and closes his eyes for him.


End file.
